LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has again rejected the appeal of a state inmate sentenced to life for the 2011 stabbing death of a fellow prisoner.

Mohamed Abdulkadir was sentenced in 2012 for killing 22-year-old Michael Grandon at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln.

Grandon had been imprisoned for the May 2007 murders of 38-year-old Lori Solie and her 5-year-old daughter, Tiara, of North Platte.

Abdulkadir argued that a lower court was wrong to dismiss without first holding a hearing on Abdulkadir’s motion seeking to vacate his second-degree murder and weapon-use convictions.

On Friday, the high court upheld the lower court’s dismissal, saying Abdulkadir’s argument that his defense attorney failed to call two witnesses who would have testified in his favor was without merit.